


Moon's Shadow Cast

by Tarlan



Series: Dark Gift [12]
Category: The Magnificent Seven (TV), Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice
Genre: Angst, Crossover, M/M, Vampire Turning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-10-18
Updated: 2008-10-18
Packaged: 2017-10-19 17:35:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/203395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After 130 years as a vampire, JD reflects on his death and rebirth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Moon's Shadow Cast

**Author's Note:**

> For Phoenix BEATS Challenge #4

"Give me that!"

With a sigh of exasperation JD slid the laptop from beneath Buck's hunt and pecking index fingers, only to grin at the annoyed exclamation. With a speed that no mortal eye could follow, he typed out the necessary commands to hack into the website that Buck had spotted in his spam folder. JD sighed again because only someone obsessional like Buck would ever follow what would be a Trojan-laden link to some sleazy sex site. Fortunately, JD knew more than just a thing or two about computers, having become enthralled with the fast-growing technology of this modern age.

Images of gorgeous, bare-breasted women filled the screen and JD had to admit that Buck had found a good site this time around. He barely murmured approval for one particular set of endowments on a woman when Buck nudged him aside and took back the laptop, adding his own sounds of appreciation and soft wolf whistles.

"Hoo-ey!"

A rich, warm chuckle came from the couch opposite and JD grinned back at Nathan and the handsome man lying with his head in Nathan's lap. Ezra stirred, opening one eye lazily and offering a toothy smile back at JD, light glinting off the gold tooth that had never needed replacing in all this time.

"After more than a century, I might have presumed Mr. Wilmington would have lost some of his boyish delight in seeing the female form in all its naked glory."

Buck looked up at the teasing and murmured breathily, "Some sights will never grow old, Ezra. The luscious curve of a hip, the swell of a creamy bosom--"

"Amen to that," Josiah stated as he moved behind Buck to look over his shoulder at the images flashing onto the screen, eyebrows rising at the indecent display of flesh. All of them had been born into an age where the sight of a bare ankle would be considered unseemly; all except Buck who had spent his formative years growing up in a whorehouse. If anything, JD thought that should have made Buck less inclined to ogle the ladies rather than more so; he ought to have become immune to the sight.

JD shook his head and sank onto the far end of the couch after shifting Ezra's legs onto his lap. Becoming a vampire had not altered Buck's preference for a woman's curves over a man's angles and flat planes, so that was one trait they still had in common. The only exception was the closeness they both felt towards each other and towards their brothers in blood. The intimacy of wrapping an arm around Josiah's powerful frame or leaning against Nathan's side, of pressing a soft kiss to Chris's lips or trailing fingers through Vin's glossy curls was no stranger to either of them. Neither was holding onto each other so closely as they slept away the day in a coffin made for one. It wasn't sexual in nature for it transcended such physical considerations for him and Buck, unlike with Nathan and Ezra or Chris and Vin who were rarely apart from each other.

Almost without noticing, his hand began to caress Ezra's strongly muscled calf, unconsciously enjoying the silken touch of cool flesh beneath his fingertips. He heard Ezra sigh in happiness and watched as Nathan leaned over to kiss Ezra's still smiling lips. In contrast, becoming a vampire had allowed four of their number to claim their soulmate.

Seeing Ezra and Nathan lost in each other's touch made JD's heart soar in happiness for, like Chris and Vin, they had been forced apart by social conventions while mere mortal. Impending death had made them acknowledge the love that had always been there and mortal death had set them free to pursue that everlasting love. Except nothing lasted forever as the events of this past year had shown, for even vampires could be killed. The scourge of Queen Akasha had been a real eye opener, shaking each of them from the complacency that had set in slowly over this last century. Then they had almost lost Vin and Chris to the obsession of Ella Gaines. It didn't matter that Vin had been the target, with Ella wanting to get rid of him so she might have a chance of winning back Chris. She'd lost that chance when Chris discovered the part she'd played in the death of Sarah and Adam but insanity had no reasoning.

JD had no doubt in his mind that Chris would have followed Vin into oblivion had he not managed to find him in time and bury them both deep enough in the sand dunes as the terrible sun rose above them. He had barely survived the loss of Sarah and even with these companions by his side, Chris would never have wanted to spend long centuries apart from Vin, his soulmate... his eternal love.

Part of JD wondered if Casey could have been his immortal companion. The remembrance of the happiest and saddest year in his life came back to haunt him, and he sank down into the memories from 130 years ago....

***

"JD? You seen Chris or Vin?"

Buck looked uptight, eyes darting from one corner of the town to another as if their missing friends could be hiding in the noon-day shadows between the buildings. JD shook his head.

"Their horses were gone when I checked the stable earlier, and Josh couldn't recall seeing them the night before. Still, I figured they rode out to Chris's shack early this morning."

Buck nodded but JD could see he was unconvinced. "Or late last night after leaving the saloon."

Buck had become more openly concerned with Chris's whereabouts following the Jericho incident, aware that they would have gotten Chris out of that hellhole of a prison much sooner if Buck hadn't been so quick to dismiss the concerns of Mrs. Travis. The damage wrought by that crooked sheriff and Warden had taken Chris weeks to shake off.

Buck straightened. "Maybe I'll just ride over there. See if they're laying in wood ready for the winter."

Riding out to Chris's land and back took a few hours so JD was not surprised when Buck didn't make a reappearance until after nightfall. Buck sank into the same chair he'd occupied the night before when all seven of them had crowded around this one table and spent the best night of camaraderie that JD could ever recall. For once Chris had lost the melancholy air that had hung over him for all the time JD had known the man, revealing the man who must have existed before the tragedy that had befallen him several years earlier. The smile playing about his lips and the pleasure in his eyes had lifted his whole face, smoothing away most for the lines of pain and grief that had been etched into his skin. He'd looked younger and he looked happy. He and Vin had shared so many looks that evening; awe-filled looks, loving looks, even indulging looks, and despite everyone treating him like a baby, JD was astute enough to know what those looks meant. He had no problem with two men finding comfort with each other.

While sitting at that table, he'd vowed then and there to protect whatever Chris and Vin had found together, determined that neither of them would be pulled up before some Judge on sodomy charges, if that was the way their feelings went. After all, what they had was nobody's business but their own. They weren't hurting nobody by wanting each other, unless one of the many widows in the town was looking for a replacement husband and was planning to stake a claim on one of them.

Strange, but he recalled both of them looking at him at that very moment, with every ounce of that love seemingly directed straight at him, as if they'd read his fiercely protective thoughts of them. The moment passed and JD's last strong memory from that night was of the weight of Chris's hand upon his shoulder, of fingers squeezing gently in quiet affirmation of something that went beyond mere camaraderie into a deep and abiding friendship. Then he walked away with a far lighter step than JD could ever recall, as if he was walking on air rather than on the wooden boarding and sawdust floor. Chris followed Vin to the saloon door, looking back once as if he was memorizing this moment for eternity. The batwing door swung several times after they passed into the street beyond before finally stilling.

The sound of Ezra shuffling the deck one-handed and fanning the cards across the table brought him back to the present. Ezra's soft southern voice breached the gap. "Did you by chance locate Mr. Larabee and Mr. Tanner?"

Buck shook his head. "No one's been there for a few days."

"Maybe they went hunting," Ezra mused. "Our resident buffalo hunter would want to stock up on supplies before the winter months set in."

"Didn't take any flour or jerky."

JD knew that meant they hadn't planned to be gone long enough to camp overnight, or that they had a destination in mind that would provide for an evening meal and breakfast. Or maybe Vin intended for Chris to live off the land just as Vin did each trip out.

Nathan leaned forward, his face solemn. "I checked with Mrs. Potter. Vin gave her his wagon. Said he wouldn't be needing it no more."

They spent the next hour discussing possible headings but neither Chris nor Vin had mentioned any intention of leaving the town, and no one had seen them leave, almost as if they'd disappeared into thin air.

By the end of that first week, the truth had started to sink in that Chris and Vin had truly gone. That last evening in the saloon had been their way of saying goodbye and Buck had spent every moment since then trying to figure out which direction they'd taken. When news came of two men fitting Chris and Vin's description due West of the town, JD watched as Buck was torn between staying and leaving; whatever the decision, JD was determined to follow Buck. Fate took that choice away from him when Casey came to him all fearful less than a week after Chris and Vin's disappearance.

"JD...I'm going to have a baby. Our baby."

A week after the wedding, Buck saddled up and rode out, sending a line back from towns he passed through as he slowly headed west towards the Pacific. A few months later, Josiah went on his pilgrimage to Vista City and never came back. Like Buck, he still sent the occasional letters addressed to Ezra, letting them all know he was well but the town no longer felt the same without the others.

Just a couple of months before the baby was born, Nathan left to visit Rain in the Seminole village. A new doctor had arrived in the town from back East, a Bostonian who reminded JD of the places where he'd grown up. Perhaps Nathan had felt a little left out, especially when former patients began to turn to the surgeon rather than use his healing skills, just like they had before except, this time, JD could see that this doctor was planning to stay. The railway had passed close enough to the town to ensure its continued survival for a few good years yet, with talks of building a spur line into the town once the main route from the east to the west coast was complete.

JD's little girl, Ellen Cassandra, was born in the late Spring and in the Fall, they buried her mother after Typhoid swept through the town.

Ezra had helped him bury his wife and perhaps if he hadn't been so wrapped up in his grief then JD might have noticed the increased hostility towards Ezra. The town was becoming more respectable and they must have made it clear that persons of Ezra's character were no longer welcome. All JD could recall from that last meeting in the saloon was the look on Ezra's face as he described the Mississippi gambling boats and the wonders lying beyond the reaches of this small town. In hindsight, JD should have seen through the ruse but Ezra had always been a consummate actor, managing to fool a lot of people; managing to fool him.

As he watched Ezra ride out of town for possibly the last time, JD felt utterly alone. The last time he had felt this way he had spent all his money on a decent saddle and a train ticket in search of his dreams. This time he had responsibilities that could not be handed over to another. He had Nettie and he had a daughter, and both of them needed him.

"Sheriff!"

JD looked up as the telegraph boy raced towards him, a piece of paper in hand. He read the note and straightened. Digging deep into his pocket, he handed the boy a small coin.

"Go tell Mrs Travis."

JD swept into the jail and grabbed a rifle, quickly making sure it was loaded. The new sheriff at Eagle Bend had sent a warning that the Grainger Gang were heading this way and despite problems in the past, he and Sheriff McVale had come to an agreement of sorts. McVale and his deputies would be riding hard towards the town so all JD had to do was convince a few of the good townsfolk to back him up until McVale got here.

JD should have known better, and as he stepped out to confront the gang on the outskirts of the town, meaning to issue a friendly warning for them to treat the town with some respect, he realized there was no one standing there to watch his back.

Grainger was a big man, sitting heavy on a horse that looked like it should buckle under the man's weight. JD could not help but wince in sympathy, having always had an affinity towards horses, and the grimace must have shown on his face.

"You got a problem, boy?"

"I ain't got a problem as long as you and your men ride straight on."

"And if we don't?"

"Then I'm going to have to ask you to leave your guns at the jail house. You can collect them when you leave."

Grainger roared with laughter. "You are so funny, boy."

The crack of a gunshot was muffled in the dead air of the cemetery and JD didn't register the pain at first, just a hard thump against his back.

_You don't shoot nobody in the back!_

Memories of those words came back to haunt him, spoken on this very spot all those years earlier. He'd first seen Chris and Vin here, and Nathan too, hanging from a noose. JD lifted a hand to the spot and pulled it back in front, confused by the smear of red blood trickling through his fingers. The rifle slipped from suddenly numb fingers, dropping soundlessly onto the dust and sand at his feet. A flurry of movement caused him further confusion as Grainger spurred that poor horse forward and brushed JD aside like a man flicking off a fly. The sand came up fast to greet him, and the world narrowed down to the tombstones in his line of sight and to the distant echo of gunshots as Grainger's men galloped into the town unobstructed.

JD was never sure how long he lay there with no feeling in his legs and the numbness slowly spreading upwards to make each breath harder than the last. He could see the sun setting, the red tinged sky dripping down the pale gray stone of the grave markers like trails of blood. Shadows of hovering vultures flapped around him, some growing bold enough to leave their perches on a handy tombstone to land on the ground close by. He waved at them weakly, and they hopped backwards several paces, their beady eyes watching and waiting for him to lose this fight for life.

Occasional screams drifted on the breeze from the town behind him, the muffled gunshots thudding off wood and shattering glass, and still no one came.

As he struggled for each breath, determined to live for his daughter and for Nettie, the moon rose, casting a silver-lined shadow that lengthened across the cemetery. The vultures scattered when the cast shadow moved eerily but JD knew he had reached the end, tears welling in his eyes because this wasn't how it was supposed to happen.

A man dropped to his knees before him, big hands reaching out to grasp him and pull him up to a strong chest. JD sobbed again when he recognized Buck's tortured cries of his name, his voice reaching through the numbness of his fading life. Hands carded through his hair and stroked along his cheek, and JD turned his face into the palm, pressing his lips against it in comfort.

"You...came...back," he whispered, not caring if this was just a figment of his dying mind. He wanted this. He needed this, and he closed his eyes, content to let his life go now he was no longer so alone.

"Chris! Vin!"

A small shake brought his heavy eyes back open to stare into unnatural, blazing eyes. Sapphire in one, Emerald green for the other, eyes in long familiar faces.

"JD...Got to ask you. Do you want to live forever?" Chris asked, his voice soft as silk.

"With you...and Buck?"

"And Vin and Josiah."

"Forever," JD breathed back with a smile, crying softly as Vin took him from Buck's arms. JD felt pressure against his throat, the last of his blood draining from his body leaving him so weak and thirsty. His voice cracked in a self-mocking laugh and then his lips were pressed against warm flesh, the metallic scent and taste of blood filling his senses as the blood trickled down his parched throat. He felt his strength returning as he lapped at the fluid, latching on to suck more from the body. The numbness receded from his chest, pushing away slowly in a blaze of pins and needles down his legs to his toes until he felt so alive again. JD cried out when the source of this thirst quenching fluid pulled away, his body jack-knifing in pain as his stomach and bowels rebelled.

He could feel Buck's large hands stroking his hair through the ordeal, reassuring him that it would all be over soon and JD fought to hold onto that final breath, feeling it leave his body as his heart stilled forever.

His eyes opened to wonder, to a world glittering beneath a silver moon that cast living shadows across the sand and dust. An angel atop a grave turned her stone head and smiled at him, and the vultures spread their wings, lifting off and heading away now they realized there would be no carrion from this place.

"JD?"

He turned his head and found Buck sitting beside him, one hand still smoothing through his matted hair in gentle strokes. In the moonlight, Buck looked as if he belonged in heaven. A flick of luminous blue eyes had JD looking across to where Josiah sat cross legged on a burial mound, the familiar toothy grin welcoming him. Beyond Josiah stood Vin, wrapped in the arms of a golden-haired angel dressed in black.

Chris smiled. "Buck? Josiah? Hear there's a party going on in town. Plenty for everyone."

The words resonated through JD, through his mind as well as through the still night air, leaving him wide eyed in astonishment until he realized another truth. "I'm hungry!"

Vin chuckled. "Yeah. You and me both, kid, but we can wait here for the boys to deliver the special on tonight's menu."

Within ten minutes, a body landed on the ground in front of JD, the terrified man scrabbling backwards as JD stared hard into the man's face and read the knowledge of guilt from his very soul. This was the man who had shot him in the back and left him to die, and JD wasn't his first cowardly kill. His blood was delicious, sating the hunger that had threatened to overwhelm JD only moments earlier.

By the time McVale and his men arrived in the morning, JD and his new family was long gone and Mary Travis reported in her morning paper that Sheriff Dunne was seen gunned down while protecting the town. She wouldn't mention that he had lain in the cemetery for half a day and night unattended except by the vultures, and that they never recovered his body. She wouldn't do more than mention that the Grainger Gang was tearing up the town one minute and gone the next, never to be seen again. However, she would take little Ellen into her heart and home, and bring JD and Casey's daughter up as her own.

****

His thoughts came back to the present when Buck let out a loud whoop of delight as he found the videos on the sex site. The sound drew movement from across the room where two others lounged together on a luxurious couch. Vin leaned against the backrest with Chris held loosely in his arms, his back to Vin's chest, both of them appearing to be reading from the same classic novel that was held in Chris's strong grip. From the blissful look on Vin's face, Chris was the one reading tonight, and if JD concentrated then he would be able to hear the unspoken words shared in the mind link.

Chris must have picked up a stray thought from JD because he glanced across, his mind voice faltering as he smiled softly. Slightly above him, Vin opened his eyes and JD caught and held the sapphire gaze of his sire and friend, neither of them able to read the thoughts of the other because of the sire-child bond and yet JD didn't need to hear Vin's thoughts to understand what he was thinking. There was love and pleasure written in his eyes, a love that encompassed all of those present in this room, and especially the vampire held in his arms.

Close to a hundred and thirty years had passed since each of them had cast aside the pain of mortal life and rediscovered the family that they so desperately needed with each other. Sadly, the small town that had brought them together had not survived the decades after the railway turned in a different direction, slowly abandoned until it was no more than a ghost town filled with decaying buildings, slowly being reclaimed by the land.

Out of curiosity, JD had kept a close watch over his daughter, seeing her grow into a beautiful young lady who looked so much like her mother. Seeing her grow old and die had been heartbreaking but she left JD with several grandchildren, and they in turn had children of their own. Of the Seven, he was the only one who still had familial ties to the mortal world, and perhaps that was why he found it easier to interact with the modern age.

As Buck whooped again and Josiah gave a throaty laugh, Vin's eyes twinkled with pleasure. Chris snorted in fond exasperation, murmuring something about Buck being a slave to his hormones while Ezra and Nathan laughed softly between light, adoring kisses. JD gently squeezed the leg that was still in his hand, giving silent thanks for the day he jumped from a stagecoach in a dusty frontier town and became part of a family that would stay by his side - hopefully forever.

END


End file.
